Premier nurturing in Ashland

By Beth Hunter, Correspondent

Thursday

Oct 12, 2017 at 9:37 AMOct 12, 2017 at 5:00 PM

For 28 years, Don and Janet Gordon have owned the Premier Image Gallery on Eliot Street in Ashland. Along with providing material resources for their customers, such as art supplies and framing, the Gordons also strive to support local artists by displaying and promoting their work.

Each year, the gallery sponsors five major exhibits: the Christmas Show, the Spring Show, the Photography Show, the Open Show and the current exhibit, the Framingham Artist Guild Show.

Featured in this new exhibit are 47 works of painting, photography and mixed media contributed by members of the Guild. Like the Premier Image Gallery, the Framingham Artists Guild, established 63 years ago, has a mission to bring together local artists. The guild organizes demonstrations and lectures for its member artists. In addition, there are ongoing informal gatherings to create art and weekly critique sessions.

Framingham Artists Guild President Bill Chignola is also a proud second-place winner in the watercolor category for "West Bow Street, Edinburgh, Scotland."

“It is a study in orange and blue…window light and shadows,” Chignola explained.

The row of colorful houses lining West Bow Street was a challenge to Chignola. He paints in the style of photorealism, the movement from the 1960s and 1970s in which the artist aims to realistically reproduce the image from a photograph. Chignola explained there were 80 windows in the original photograph. On this day in the gallery, Chignola remarked that at one point he discovered he had missed a few windows and needed to correct his painting.

Chignola’s comment sparked a response from Barney Levitt of Ashland, the first-place winner in oils.

“It is easy to fix a mistake in oils. Just wipe it out,” Levitt said, explaining that oil paint can be removed and painted over without too much difficulty.

Chignola explained that “you must save your whites in watercolor. Don’t paint over them. Use the basic paper as your white paint.”

So correcting errors or making changes on a watercolor canvas is a stickier problem. Fortunately, Chignola’s years of working with watercolors enabled him to flawlessly correct his painting.

Levitt, who has never tried watercolor, received first place in the oils category for his entry titled "Put a Quarter in the Juke Box."

What you see filling the frame is a colorful table in a '50s diner complete with burger and fries, ice cream sundae, condiments, tip and that shiny tabletop juke box. Levitt prefers to paint from real life, as opposed to photographs. His winning entry is a carefully composed still life assembled in his Ashland studio. Antiques, bird’s nests, familiar items of all sorts that evoke a nostalgic mood, these form the elements of his unique still life paintings.

The third award category was for various mediums. First place went to Evelyn Melancon of Natick for her digital photograph titled "Rapids, Colorado River." In her photo, Melancon has captured the golden light of the Colorado sunset. She considers photography the “truthful” medium. For that reason she chooses not to manipulate her images using a digital photo editing tool.

The photographer, the watercolorist and the oil painter are all part of this community of artists whose work is currently on display at the Premier Image Gallery. Not only have the Gordons created a space for local artists to exhibit and to gain that elusive exposure necessary to market their works, they have helped to develop this collaborative atmosphere where artists can discuss and share their personal art experiences. There is something for everyone to enjoy at this eclectic show.

The works of 26 local artist from the Framingham Artist Guild are now on display, the exhibit extended to Nov. 7 at Premier Image Gallery, 290 Eliot St., Ledgemere Plaza, Ashland. The exhibit is free and all artwork is available for sale. For additional information, please call 508-881-4730 or visit premierimagegallery.com.